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I have been browsing your website for a while and have decided to purchase either a Moritaka 240mm kiritsuke or 240mm Masakage gyuto. My personal preference would be a knife with more heft, and somewhat thick like traditional Japanese knives. Also I would like to know whether the out of the box sharpness of the Moritaka is consistent or needs to be sharpened. I am still inexperienced with sharpening, and know that Moritaka offers sharpening services if a knife is sent back, but I do not know if Masakage has a similar thing going on. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Which Masakage Gyuto(s) are you comparing to the Moritaka? As far as OOTB edge sharpness, every single Masakage I've handled (about 8 so far) has been very, very sharp. They have one of the best OOTB edges of any maker I've seen thus far. I'm a huge Masakage fan - I just love their knives. Moritaka makes a great knife as well, but they are going to be a bit more rustic with the Kurouchi finish and not quite as polished OOTB. If you are looking at the Masakage Mizo line, I would step up a notch and look at the Yuki line - stainless cladding, better performance, just a nicer knife all around.

Please not that the edge profile of the Kiritsuke is going to be MUCH flatter than the Gyuto - best for push cutting and chopping. If you like to rock chop, a Kiritsuke might not be the best choice. A 240 Gyuto will have a more versatile profile for performance lots of different tasks ITK.

As far as sharpening, you should be able to strop or even use an Idahone fine ceramic rod w/gentle strokes (2nd choice) and keep your edge very serviceable for quite some time before a full sharpening is needed. I've had my Yuki Gyuto for over 9 months now and haven't done a full sharpening yet. This will give you ample time to get a stone or two and practice on your other knives, etc. before going for it with your new Gyuto. Sharpening and edge maintenance is an integral part of the high performance knife experience - learn to do this well and you'll always have sharp knives in the kitchen .

Adam Marr

Post subject: Re: Moritaka or Masakage gyuto?

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2013 9:45 am

Forum Moderator

Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:36 pmPosts: 3330

Both the Moritaka's and the Masakage's that I've seen have been sharpen out of the box. Both could, of course, be improved by someone who was skilled at sharpening.

To send either knife back to the maker for sharpening would be quite expensive. If that's the option you choose, there are several knife sharpeners in the US that do a very good job and the postage wouldn't kill the deal.

Between the two brands....with no specifics on models.....I like the Masakage's more. Neither, though, really has a lot of heft. Both are typically very thin.

I recently purchased a Moritaka Supreme wa-gyuto 240 mm. It was sharp enough OOTB to slice paper. It has a decent amount of heft (for me) to give a nice, solid feel during prep. It is too heavy and long for my wife so I bought her a Kohetsu 210 wa-gyuto that is much lighter and she really loves that knife. I have no experience with the Masakage gyutos but I do have a yuki 150 mm petty and a Shimo nakiri. These are both extremely high quality knives so I imagine the Masakage gyutos would be equally nice.

I can't see you going wrong with either knife. Maybe aesthetics will rule your choice. I would be hard pressed to chose between these two wonderful knives.

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